


You do know I love him?

by thunderbird_dragon



Series: Love between Gordon Tracy and Lady Penelope [5]
Category: Thunderbirds, thunderbirds are to
Genre: Angst, Brothers, F/M, friends - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-24
Updated: 2018-08-24
Packaged: 2019-07-02 01:14:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15785949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thunderbird_dragon/pseuds/thunderbird_dragon
Summary: Penny has a quiet moment to reflect with John, whilst Gordon recovers quietly in her arms.





	You do know I love him?

“How’s our Squid-Kid doing?” John’s voice was hushed on the comms, he could see his brother was sleeping, tucked into Penny's shoulder.  
“A little better John, he’s slept most of the time but I really wish we could stop him shaking. Then, just occasionally, he does this funny little shudder that makes me think the chemicals must still be in him.” Her lips were buried in Gordon’s soft hair, her eyes constantly watching him.  
“I'm sorry Penny, I thought they explained this, the residue may take a month or more to clear his system.”  
“A month?” she questioned quietly but with a ting of distress.  
John smiled at his friend, “Yes a month, he nearly drowned in that filth, it’ll take time.” He could see she was having a rough time dealing with this, if only he could help.  
A distraction maybe.  
She'd been called away from a long overdue meeting with her mother to come to Gordon's side, so John asked, “How did you get on with your mother?”  
Penny simply smiled, John knew her relationship with her mother was strained at the best of times, they hardly communicated from one year's end to the next. Why her mother had chosen to contact Penny, out of the blue, was still a mystery to her.  
John tried again.  
“Did she have much to say about you and Gordon?”  
At this Penny huffed a little, the movement disturbed the sleeping Gordon and she began to rock him gently, soothing him until he slept soundly again.  
“She never listens John, you know that. She didn’t take in that we had so nearly lost him.”  
John’s turn to shudder.  
It had been too close, far, far too close. He didn’t want to talk about the rescue, the chemical factory’s illegal drainage system and why his brother had been trapped in it.  
No, he had meant something else so reworded his question.  
“Sorry, I meant about you being with Gordon?”  
“Oh.” She spoke mildly as though rethinking the conversation with her mother again absently. “She had quite a bit to say really.” And she smiled briefly. “Apparently, Gordon is the last one she thought I would end up with.” She looked up to be able to watch John’s face for a reaction to her next sentence. “She says I ought to be with one of you older boys and had her money on you!” At this, she openly grinned.  
He smiled too. He didn’t want to say ‘not a chance’ but it was implied.  
She knew and understood, theirs was a friendship, a warm and loving close friendship, nothing more.  
“But, if not you, then Scott!”  
John laughed out loud at that idea and this time he did say, “Not a chance!”  
“No,” She was enjoying talking openly like this with John, he always understood. “No, Scott would never put up with all my moods.” And her focus came back to Gordon as she nestled her nose into his fair hair again and let her mind wander gently. “Not like you do!” She spoke so quietly that John realised that she had been speaking gently to Gordon and not him, this made him smile again.  
A moment or two went by as they shared a silence, it was so easy to be silent with John, he was just there, close despite the thousands of miles between them.  
When she spoke again, her voice was so soft and mellow, that John instantly recognised a difference, an importance to her words.  
“You do know don’t you John, that I love him?”  
John took a moment to register her meaning and then answered, just as gently “Yes.”  
She looked up at his image, “No, John. I really mean love him.”  
He could see she was close to tears, “I couldn’t bear ...” But she couldn’t finish her sentence as she tilted her head deeper into his hair so that John wouldn’t see the tears.  
John knew what ‘gut-wrenching’ meant, he’d experienced it enough times, alone on Thunderbird 5 unable to help his family so far below. But this had another poignancy, this was both his friend and his brother all in one horrible tight clench. She couldn’t see, but his tears fell for both of them.  
Then, more strongly, she said. “John you do know, don’t you, that although I’ve chosen Gordon, you are…”  
He wanted, needed, to halt her quickly, “I know!”  
She looked up, worried that she had offended him but he was still smiling down on her.  
In a voice as soft as a whisper, John reassured her, “I have only ever asked for your friendship Penny and you’ve only ever offered it with love, for that I am very content.”


End file.
